First CEF-funded surveying ship baptised on Danube

Creation date: October 25, 2017

Minister of Sea, Transport and Infrastructure of Croatia Oleg Butković, INEA Director Dirk Beckers and the Coordinator of the EU's Rhine-Danube transport corridor Karla Peijs took part in the christening ceremony of the first surveying ship funded by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Transport programme in Vukovar today. The vessel will be used to measure different parameters of the Danube fairway in order to improve the river transport.

Unfavourable fairway conditions, such as insufficient depth can strongly increase transport costs and reduce its reliability, as well as raise the emission levels and decrease the overall attractiveness to customers. By providing timely and reliable information on the fairway condition, the new ship will help anticipate the possible river transport shortcomings.

The ship construction is part of the CEF-funded FAIRway project that aims to upgrade the Danube River transport infrastructure and develop the waterway transport. The EU is supporting this project with €19.3 million, which represents 50% of the total project costs.

Earlier today, Mr Butković and Mr Beckers signed two new grant agreements on the CEF support to the Croatian inland waterway development. The first project will receive €6.6 million grant to construct and upgrade the Slavonski Brod Port Infrastructure. The second project will obtain over €550 thousand for studies planning the Sava River transport development. Both projects are expected to end in 2020.